Design and implementation of a flexible, software based TDMA system

A flexible, processor-based, TDMA (time-division multiple-access) station has been implemented. This station and its associated variable-data-rate modem enables users to implement very complex frame structures under software control. Burst rates of 512 kb/s to 8.192 Mb/s are possible, allowing the transmitted bit energy from each station in the network to be adapted to prevailing conditions. A brief description of the TDMA station in terms of the architecture both of the hardware and of the core software is presented. A more advanced system which uses additional software in order to allow the TDMA station to operate with both packet and stream data is described. One proposed application of the station is the transmission of mixed stream and packet traffic using a modification of the FODA technique in a user-oriented satellite network interconnecting a number of LANs